Television

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Texas executes killer using single drug protocol

The 24th Execution of 2012

Yokamon Hearn, a death row inmate convicted of carjacking and fatally shooting a Plano stockbroker in 1998, was executed in Texas on July 18, 2012. Hearn's lethal injection consisted a single lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital instead of the previous three-drug mix. Hearn is the first Texas inmate to be executed using a single drug protocol.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials announced last week that they were modifying the method used since 1982 because the state's supply of one of the drugs -- the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide -- has expired.

Ohio, Arizona, Idaho and Washington have adopted a single-drug procedure, and this week Georgia said it would do so.

Asked by the warden whether he wanted to make a statement, he said: "I'd like to tell my family that I love y'all and I wish y'all well. I'm ready."

He showed no apparent unusual reaction to the drug and was pronounced dead about 25 minutes after the lethal dose began flowing.

Hearn was condemned for the March 1998 slaying of Frank Meziere, 23, in Dallas. Meziere was cleaning his black convertible Mustang at a self-service carwash when Hearn, then 19, and three others approached. They forced Meziere at gunpoint into the Mustang and drove him to an industrial area in south Dallas, where he was shot 10 times in the head.

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.